minorities own 10% on average of what other americans own, and that means you don't have the ability to get a loan to send kids to college or a loan to start a business because you don't own anything. so -- >> communities of color have a hard time advancing as the generations progress in that situation, right? >> exactly. >> right. >> so for all of these reasons, these subjects are -- need to be talked about. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> if you don't know the name, we want to introduce you to author roger l. simon. now, he's written a couple of books. he's written a detective series, novels, he's written "turning right at hollywood and vine: the perils of coming out conservative in tinseltown." and here's his most recent book, it's called "i know best: how moralle narcissism is destroying our republic if it hasn't already." want to let you know also that

roger l. simon is a hollywood screen writer. busten loose, that came out with richard pryor, scenes from a mall with bette midler and woody allen, and enemies: a love story. and he is also the cofounder and ceo of pj media. first of all, roger simon, what is pj media? >> guest: pj media was pajamas media at the early part of this century, now i can say. [laughter] and it was an amalgamation of blogs originally that had been formed in response to dan rather's lying about the bush bush/national guard situation. the then- i guess he was managing editor or supervising editor of cbs called us all

amateurs for attacking this dishonesty of rather's, so we decided to form a media company called pajamas media. .. it was originally intended i helped permit is a media company on the right and left dialogue in both sites. that fell apart in part because the people on the left side wanted more money this is much like you wonder how much how rhonda williams gets paid by fox news to representative than the

left. we were a fledgling company so we cannot afford to get a cheat so it became more of a center-right, libertarians. i consider myself a libertarian. i don't like definitions much because they had human but that is what happened and now i would say it's a media company reporting and giving opinion and all the things that national review does et cetera. >> host: with a lot of people consider conservative site? >> guest: i think that is fair to say that. i mean, despite the odd intention it's becoming a trying to do thehe i impossible is our culture today doesn't exist. >> host: roger simon you the book the cannot a couple years ago called turning right the perils of coming out conservative into the town and were you not always a conservative/libertarian?

>> guest: no, not at all. you're looking at one of the original financiers of the black panther party. how's that for conservative? i was pretty far in the left when i was a young man as many are and i might be the living embodiment of that quote attributed to churchill or maybe it's not virtual but if a man is not a liberal at 20 he has no heart and if he is not a conservative at 30 has no brain so whatever that quote was given it was given to people who lived a lot shorter but you get the idea. i'm more of a 911 person who came over around then. >> host: 911 impacted your politics. >> guest: a great deal. >> host: walk us through that. >> guest: my politics has been slightly impacted by the oj trial. the trial here in la was a gigantic deal predictable the city is people who were alive and remember. i went to the child and i was an

x civil rights worker from the south and it started -- it disturbed me to see someone obviously guilty getting off for racial reasons. back in the days that i was in the civil rights movement i believed in integration but it was a return to tribalism because essentially tribalism they got oj off. that did not change me that much. it disturbed me. then when 911 hit i flipped over a lot. not entirely but to this day i am pro- gay marriage, as an example. i'd marry you want. just have a good lawyer.

i switched over at that point and i had started blogging at the same time because i'm an early adopter. my father was a radiologist and i grew up around all kinds of tech stuff so i started to blog early and i did it because i had a novel b coming out from simon& schuster which is one of might detective series. i noticed that simon & schuster wasn't promoting the book very much and i had been enough of an order for a long time that you can smell when they like to book and when they did not read it and not take a rocket scientist but anyway, i decided on my blog to push the book. look what publishers weekly said and that'sotnteresting. i started to blog my opinions and the blog took off like crazy but the book did not sell. nevertheless, something that happened. the blog took off because i was going through this political change and i was being honest

about it. a lot of people at that time and were talking 2003, in there, going to a change like that. if you remember the media post 911. there was a great deal of unanimity in the country as people went what is happening here? but then a lot reverted to where they were before but somehow i did not. it's a mystery to me that even though i wrote this book to ask by myself i did not fully explain myself because i think people are mysterious why they believe what they do. it's a complex issue. i think the theme of my life and work going forward, whether fiction, film or nonfiction, s so -- >> host: did you lose friendships when you cameos out conservative? did you lose work? >> guest: absolutely. i alienated parts my family and it's apa terrible thing. it's gone on in this country all over the place. thanksgiving is not what it used

to be. >> host: describe what happened here in hollywood being a conservative in hollywood and what the reaction was. >> guest: it took me a while to realize how bad it was. i had an early title for that book which is blacklisting myself which was a right title in the publisher changed it in the second edition because i added to it. but, you know, either way in the beginning, you know, i expressat riders should what they feel otherwise what is the point of writing? why not go manufacture ball bearings or something. writing is about expressing of where you are at. i didn't think of something the people could be so offended, naïve that i am. in this age of twitter, i mean, everyone wants to bite each

other's head off, it's crazy. at that point it took me a while to realize what happened and it took me a while to hear back from my agent and manager of people like that. roger, you are losing money. [laughter] it was interesting because in case of a manager who was feeling sympathetic to what i was saying but like a lot of people in hollywood there was the mafia refers to as [inaudible]. it's a code of silence. you don't say your opinion -- unless you are clint eastwood which in which case were so famous you like mount rushmore so what will they do to you but most people are not that in almost all writers are not that. writers are in the part of hollywood. >> host: is there a code of conservatives here in hollywood? a little bit underground.

>> guest: it's not entirely underground anymore. there was an organization called the friends of aid that was very underground and suddenly they had an event in which 900 people went to a party as if that was a secret and they said this is an event. can you imagine in hollywood a big bash in a fancy house with 900 people being a secret? it's ridiculous. there were always a certain number of people in the old days of hollywood, not just ronald reagan, but others were conservative. the original impulse of hollywood movie was often conservative. i'm a yankee doodle dandy and we could go on and on. it's not monolithic and i think now in the trump era there are strange doubts going on because although trump is hated like poison 90 or worse at the same time they realize that there is

a giant audience out there they have alienated. stockholders of these companies should be a little annoyed. >> host: since you have been identified and self identified as a conservative/libertarian or as you put it in your new book, "i know best", i am a libertarian neocon, in a certain sense such a thing cannot exist and i resolve the conflict in this way and i am a libertarian mostly domestically and in interventionist, mostly or often, internationally. >> guest: that's a book i wrote like every book anything about books -- the lag time. i would say that i'm less of an interventionist and when i wrote that although i think that, for example, trump did the right thing in syria. he did not go very far which is good but he made it clear that we are america we don't like people gassing people.es

hello. but, you know, domestically and very much a libertarian because i think that change comes from the people themselves and then pulling themselves up. i mean, it has what made this country great. >> host: since you've come out as a conservative how has your work changed and what kind are you still doing screenplays or -- >> guest: no, look, i'm old enough and a lot of the people i work with died. my great collaboration with paul is over because paul is over. he he is a wonderful man but he would say to our friends, i know what happens to roger, i think he is dead. i know he did not mean it because he loves me but that was like it was the, jewish humor from new york that he practiced

that was his way of expressing i feel disappointed in you. i was there the day he died and i was at cedars-sinai in the room, not exactly when it happened but an hour or two before and we were very close. some people are not able to get past that. i mean, it's the curse of our culture not just hollywood but something very bad has happened and it's very weird because i often think of floyd famous narcissism of small differences. i mean, what is -- people don't like trump because he's a loudmouth and he tweets and insults people but what has he done? he lowered taxes a little bit. he's negotiating with north korea for the first time. that's pretty good. the reality of it and what people attacking for our a different planet but that is not to say the right is pure. they are not.

but we live in this culture and you look around here in the la festival of books and this beautiful environment at usc and everyone is welcome and and eating well and in the history of civilization things cannot be better and yet, we are going -- it's pretty strange if you think about it. >> host: good afternoon. welcome to la for this is our last segment from the la times book festival. our guest, screenwriter, author, founder of pj media, roger l simon. we will talk to him for a little longer but want to put the phone lines up so you can participate in a program as well. 202 and were talking about conservatives in hollywood and political opinions. we will explore his ae. little more as well. (202)748-8200 if you live in the east and central time zone,

748-8201 for those of you in the mountains and pacific time zones. mr. simon, and most recent book is "i know best" how narcissism is destroying our republic if it has not already. you spent time identifying what you consider to be moral narcissism and what is that? >> guest: it is this. it is how so many people largely to be honest on the left put some on the right, to. they identified themselves as being good because of what they believe, not because of what they do. in other words, as long as you say the right things for what is culturally accepted is the right thing whether the result of those are good governor cuomo in

television last night i'm an undocumented worker. baloney. he's not undocumented. he's the son of a rich man and he's got more documents in h life then, you know, thomas jefferson. what the hell is he talking about? that's moral narcissism. after a the book people came up with the term called two signaling which is similar but for two signaling is what a moral narcissists does. the -- they signal how virtuous they are they are moral narcissists and they -- they but that does is establish -- in my book and established a nomenclature in the united states. the nomenclature is the russia and the soviet union and that nameless people who lived high up in the soviet society and

stalin was called conrad and filing cabinet because he had a list of all the people in the nomenclature and now we have in our media and politics our own human nature of the george thephanopoulos and who always think the same way according to what they are supposed to think and therefore become part of that class. the entire russian collusion of that was after the book is a morally narcissistic idea because they all want to have collusion but there was none. if there were collusion they are the worst detectives on the history of the planet. it feels like it's been going on for a century known evidence of collusion as well. when obama included we saw it on television. he went overtr and said tell

bottom year after the election i would be easier on missiles. it was on video and everyone thought. there's no evidence if trump colluded with russia but lots of bad things to say about him but that's not one of them. but a moral narcissists meant you had to think a certain way and therefore the entire media,t cnn, new york times, washington post, even the front pages of the last eternal spent the last year taking leaks and investigating something that was not there. you are part of the club and you're a respected person if you believe this and i use an interesting line in a my book fm oscar hammerstein which is one of my favorites, he was a great writer and honestly richard rogers and one of his greatest things was is -- nothing so bad

for a woman as a man thanks he is good. of course the course goes to his true and it is true. the moment you start to thank you are good, you are not good. this whole thing is people think they are good and trump is bad. it's politics. >> host: what are some of the other issues that in your view liberals believe that perhaps you disagree with? >> guest: that i can support? >> host: but you disagree with. >> guest: funeral, evan x civil rights worker i think the approach to race has been dead wrong. have a portion of that in -- there was an interview back in 2006 when morgan freeman by

wallace on 60 minutes and he said to morgan freeman what are you doing for black history month and morgan freeman said nothing. what are you doing for american history month and wallace said nothing and what about jewish and about jewish history month and he wanted to be jewish history month? and mike wallace said, no. but then he said what do we do about racism and morgan freeman said, well, how about you call me morgan and i call you mike. when i saw that i got chills. all the years i was demonstrating and that's the answer but it happened in recent years is we went back because people have nostalgia and i hate

to use that word but they have nostalgia for that need to feel self-righteous about this is bad and this is good but the only open answer to racism is forget about it. people i say that to some people and they say you can't forget about it the cause but the more you talk about it the more you need it. it's an interesting phenomenon. if you say look at this is a -- nothing more multicultural than los angeles and you can see it right here in the crowd around us. cares? just let it be forget about it. when i see black lives matter i recall. why? that is not helping anything. it's really not. the thing about it being a

return of the clan and so forth do you know how many people that is? 250. you know this country is? hundred 30 million. there will always be 250 idiots like that. it's the human race. the answer is not to give them attention were exacerbated but this recent starbucks incident is something that i think, no, let the stuff go away. most people are good world about it. speaking for myself when i was running pj media and hiring people if a person of color or minority or gay person or whatever came and i was happy and wanted to feel like a good wy to prior them and that is unfair to the other guy, really. i understand that but that is the way most people are. it should be accepted rather than politics. i was on the left and in every one of these things. i knew everybody in the chicago seven, they were my friends.

but it is over and forget about it but that was then, this is now. anyway, in the sermon. >> host: before we run out of time we want to get cause and we have some waiting for keith in delaware. keith, you're on with author and screenwriter, roger l simon. >> caller: yes, mr. simon, thank you for appearing today on thehe tv. do you make any mention in your book "i know best" anything about david and charles, the cook brothers, and their views on things that libertarianism and so forth? >> host: what you think of their views, keith? >> caller: i worked for one of the companies for fivemp years d i don't particularly i'm not particularly an agreement with the way they see things. spoon thanknk you, sir.

>> guest: as i said on the show already and the host has mentioned, i am still libertarian although i don't believe in any ideology completely because i think it is dangerous. you get hung by it. i think the koch brothers are often misunderstood. it is interesting that they favored gay marriage for long time and a liberal circle started attacking the koch brothers and i said you know for gay marriage they were -- they had shot looks on the faces they did not believe me. go to google and look it up. anyway. >> host: mike is calling in for north arlington, new jersey. good afternoon, mike. >> caller: my question has to do with political correctness. what is roger's opinion about

political correctness and its opinion affect on our culture ad universities and how it affects our dialogue? how do you feel about political correctness? >> caller: well, okay, i will answer that. it's ang big topic in "i know best"" what you bring up the university and i'm not going to get into it heavily now because it is premature but my wife and i are starting a company that in part deals with clinical correctness. in the university it's anti- thought. the university is a place where chairman mao should rule. i know i am being sarcastic here because he famously said let 100 schools of thought and blood and $100 to and are universities today only one school of thought can content that is not good for education. i'm sure you would agree.

>> host: you write about education and moral narcissism in social science and humanities faculties these days are largely a collection of morallyf narcissistic yes men and yes women and students are forced to comply with their views in order to succeed or they do so automatically assuming it is progressive to assist. >> guest: well, that is what i believe. i went to two august universities and have visited lately and they are not the same places i want to. i was a student protester so go figure. something is odd. >> host: i don't know if you saw recently that a college in portland, oregon is dropping a lot of their year-long humanity classics course because it's too focused on white men. >> guest: i know.

it's awful. ucla, not farti from where was sitting right now, you no longer have to read shakespeare or milton to get a degree in english. >> host: why is that a bad thing? >> guest: because there is such a thing as good and bad work. i hate to say it but politically correct people to agree but i would say that william shakespeare is probably the most talented human being who ever lived and i am a writer so i'm a little prejudiced but if you study literature and you have not read shakespeare you are a. i mean, it's like you have not studying religion but not reading the bible. it's that extreme. hai don't know. because he was a white man, so what? i don't care. it's interesting to readd eugene [inaudible] written by a black

russian so, you know, i don't care whether they are white or black. i followed the former chancellor of china said i don't care if the cat is black or white, i only care if it catches mice. >> host: we mentioned that you're the screenwriter for boston blues, but what else and what other work did you do here in hollywood. >> guest: i did work in ohollywood and never got made. >> host: is that typical? >> guest: very very typical. you know, in one of the ones that got made eventually was rewritten by a film called a better life that just came out a couple of years ago and the lead actoror got nominated for acadey award on that one. it was interesting about it was for the purposes was i wrote it years ago.

i wrote it under the title of the gardener and it was an american latino version of the bicycle thief, a classic italian movie. i was standing on a set one day directing in the money never showed andnd it is a typical sty that if you are demoted you are of the biologist and i think that's a very bad thing to be. people come to hollywood and complain aboutho hollywood, did they not read the last tycoon mark it was all there. what makes sammy run all the great books about hollywood. it's always been the same. >> host: what's it like to be on top of the town? >> guest: it's great for ten minutes. for most people it is not -- i had my tenured minutes. when i wrote enemies and people were saying it was the best

adaptationel ever and i adaptedt a nobel prize winner but i felt like a million dollars but part of me was saying this will not last more than ten minutes. it lasted 20 minutes and then -- an earlier version when i wrote the big fix and i wrote the screen adaptation of my own book there was a burst of that but when i worked with richard pryor there was a burst but unless your name is steven spielberg that is what it is. i mean, it is not -- it is no near as glamorous as it used to be. now it's more industrialized. there is not even the attraction. >> host: you mention that you and your wife are starting a new company dealing with higher education and political

quickness. the she share your politics? >> guest: yes. we cannot do that together if she didn't. you know, it would be definitely not a marriage made in heaven. it is not politically correct. per se but i would say it's a company that is going to try to open up the higher education system to a variety of ideas. i think everyone should study marks. i'm not against that. anyone who has not read marx is uneducated but you have to make judgments. >> host: george is calling in from st. paul, minnesota. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. can you hear me okay? >> host: we are listening. please, go ahead. >> caller: and glad you can hear me this is just like you said interesting things i was in a

quandary about the title of your book about moral narcissism and to me i can't imagine a better example of being a moral narcissist then being a libertarian and that's about as morally narcissistic as i can imagine. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] >> guest: i understand it a little bit. go ahead, george. >> caller: the other one is to you the big moral change you say was 911 and to me it was too but i will not get into a big argument about culpability and conspiracy and i want to ask you, mr. simon, did you ever consider that the bush administration might have had some complicity in 911 and i will hang up and listen to what you have to say. >> host: libertarians as a moral

narcissist, 911. >> guest: and the bush conspiracy. first, on libertarianism there's an element of moral narcissism and everything. when i say i'm a libertarian i'm half libertarian but i don't believe, as a written in both books, that in hearing one 100% of one ideology is smart. there's a lot to learn from many things. if you want to know mail is a libertarian, go ahead, but i'm not really, go to rand paul for that. the other thing asking me about the bushes being guilty of 911 i think absolutely not. that is a cuckoo conspiracy stuff. >> host: will try allen in california. good afternoon. >> caller: thank you, mr. simon.

i have the impression, though i have not read a lot of books but i've seen a lot of movies, movies and books tend to pick sides these days, right and left, and defended and criticize the other side and perhaps there are movies or books that don't do this but given your bipartisan background we need an author or movie author to produce these fiction or nonfiction movies that actually has people coming together or a way to come together think about coming together then rather tend always emphasize fighting the other guy to death. thank you. >> guest: i cannot agree with you more. it's a great quote for the french filmmaker, the son of the

great painter, the quote is, everyone has his reasons. i've always believed that is true and the great fiction writing and the great filmmaking all the characters have the reasons for being they are. i think if we understand that what you are talking about isre true.e. i'm always working on a book and writing a novel now and the novel will never be as explicit as when i write nonfiction. >> host: from your book, "i know best", political elites and deliberate [inaudible], is a form that is intended to blur and make a few situation that is out there that they should be and that would be consistent with their worldviews and maintenance of power. what are we talking about here? >> guest: i could talk about the russian collision event. that's exactly what happened. i think in general political

elites have all sorts in the extreme sense but also here the primary interest of power and therefore bateman ablate ideas for power all the time. moral narcissism makes him so good about it. all those people who say trump included with russia we are feeling good because the other guy was saying they're going with us and they never bothered to check it out and once in a while i remember they asked diane feinstein whether she found anything and she's as well, no. [laughter] it's almost comical if it is not sad. it's really sad ford. our county but a lot of time and money was wasted. >> host: mr. simon, who is your opinion of donald regan

contemporaneously and what is your opinion of him today? >> guest: that's a great question for me because the contemporaneously my opinion was he was a terrible right-wing awful stupid person and then in the middle of the reagan rain or and ministration i was sent to washington dc by universal pictures to write a movie for whoopi goldberg and she has been around for a while , too, about will be as a member of the white tehouse press corps and anyway o i went to washington and i never had a red carpet like that in my life and in the midst of this i was welcomed into the classroom and all of that by reagan's then press representative who was always drinking bourbon in the back. anyway, i wrote on the press

plane and i never had seen reagan speak and i went on the press plane to tallahassee florida and reagan was giving a speech just for the day to be much all black high school in tallahassee and all of a sudden i'm sitting there in the audience and watching the sky speak and they are saying, my god, he is good. he was wonderful with those kids. the kids loved him and i thought there was something wrong here but this is not the monster said [inaudible] and then, you know, i realized that he was making a deal with gorbachev and the wall was coming down. i got confused. what is interesting about my life story is i willing to change. i was willing to change and willing to change back if you

can convince me. it would be harder still but i could do it. >> host: frederick in port charlotte, florida, thank you for holding that you are on with the author, roger l simon. >> caller: yes, roger simon. i wanted to know what you think about the gym coming problem they're having right now and whether or not he is the insurance policyy that lisa page and robert stepp were talkinglk about in their text messages? >> guest: well, i've been following that closely and writing about it for pglyly meda and clearar politics as well. it's one of the interesting as an act detective story writer it was a great detective story of our time and why i won't read his book, you got it right

there. >> host: this isum your column from pj media and with a quote at the top, absolutely nothing. >> guest: i still believe that is true. except there is i could learn a little more about the pathology of james comey but it's hard to get into that. he's a strange human being. what is interesting to me is that people that strange can rise to those -- being the director of the fbi is a powerful mission in our country as we know from the days of j edgar for who is another strange person. there is something to learn they are but actually i doubt it because i don't think the man is honest. >> host: how did you get to hollywood? >> guest: an earlier marriage i married a girl from here who is a playwright at the yale school

of drama and i wrote a novel while it was a student and it got published much to the consternation of my fellow students. anyway they got bought by the movies and always made it a movie by alfred hitchcock was, at eight of 22, would've been, i mean, it was an amazing experience. i never read a screenplay but got hired to write them. it would never happen now. they like the dialogue and it's a very different place now. what was to say, no? >> host: you came out here. >> guest: never left. >> host: you will stay here? >> guest: no. the time has come>> to leave. that doesn't mean i will stop writing movies, books, i mean, i'm a writer to my core and it's in my dna but you can do that anywhere on the planet.

i think if you stay in one place for too long you get [inaudible] and my wife and i are moving to nashville but i'm not going to become a country singer. i promise. >> host: when is this happening? >> guest: shortly. >> host: are you moving to tennessee because politically you are more in tune with people from tennessee? >> guest: i think to some extent. to be honest, i am on c-span, why not? always do some assent. i've lived here at odds with many of my neighbors for quite a while. i'm doing it more reasons than that. you know, it's a strange comparison but you know how they tell you that after years of using your mouse felt right hand, use the left and so change that brain and the pathways and so forth. my neural pathways here in la are very circumscribed for years and i think that happens to people as they grow older. i want to break it up.

i've been to nashville and it's a go, go place. it's mixed politically. it's very go -- go. the part of la i like is the action of ellie. >> host: greg from illinois, go qahead with your question. >> caller: hello, roger. i'm a big fan of pj media. it's my go to site every morning. it's a pleasure to speak with you. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: to be honest with you i got bored with hollywood and there is nothing to see that is new. the movies are predictable, they are boring, the tci stuff is boring to know and and books these days are somewhat of the same category and many of them

are formula written and you know what will happen before you read it and the characters may change in circumstances may change but the plot remains the same. anyway, one of my ass you are talking about the russian probe and one of the guys that is doing a good job on this is lee smith. worst of your favorite authors you like to read? thanks. >> host: thank you. that was -- >> guest: i have to say that i share your admiration for at least with. he happens to t be a friend of mine. he writes interesting political material. no question. the other larger issue of movies and books getting repetitive and boring -- i don't think it's

entirely true. there is some truth to it but the other problem as you grow older and i know this for myself and i hate to admit it but i've seen so many movies now that i know will happen because i've been it download times myself. the worst critic. when people asked me to this movie i say, don't ask me. i get that i'm a member of the academy in the come every year in dvd form to academy members to vote and it's like the sorcerer's apprentice because a certain age -- the doorbell ring in the fedex guy will be 30 movies. i don't want to see them anymore. of course, what s you do is call your friends and you say this is worth itch because nobody watchs them all. i can't believe it. >> host: are you a voting member of the academy? the oscars and the academy awards have been in the news

last couple of years because of politics and political correctness. >> guest: the oscars are so white -- >> host: what you think about that? >> guest: everything has become like that. it's a symptom of our times. i'm bored with it. i hate to say that but if someone wants to attack me for my white skin privilege or something like that but that his finger got broken in the civil rights movement. what would you do? i think it's all t counterproductive. as long as i've been a member of the academy which has been since 1985 it's been welcoming to minority members. no one was more of a hero than the academy then sydney. and, you know, doesn't want that. but the idea of what race is in

the academy and it's stupid. i mean, why not just make it about who made a good movie last year? that is what it is supposed to be about. if it is all black people, great. if it is all white people, great. if it is all chinese, great. we live in a situation where were obsessed with these stuff. >> host: roger simon's books, turning right, "i know best" in coral is in joshua tree, california. you are on book tv. >> caller: i have been really enjoying this and i like to no, mr. simons definition of what political correctness is, this

term that has been around for decades and yet, no one could tell t me what it is. it seems to me that politically correct is just not insulting people. i will take the answer of fear. >> host: good question. >> guest: good question. you know, first of all, if that is i the medically correct i am not for it. i think it is fine to insult people like bashar al-assad or hitler. i'm not going to insult you nor do i want to insult peter or anyone but what people react against politically correctness is this thought of enforced thought. it's the forcefully. you can't say one thing because it's not the right thing and

that is not good because that's the enemy of truth assuming there is a. truth and not gettig to that. we can get closer to the truth. the truth of the matter is political correctness is the enemy of it and it's enforced thinking out of orwell and george orwell is my favorite writer after six beer. >> caller: good afternoon, gentlemen. mr. simon, i've enjoyed and i was sitting here reading a book and also watching you at the same time down my book and i'm smoking a pipe so that is not correct, either. but i've been listening to you and, by the way, i spent time in kentucky, hop and skip and a jump from national. you will enjoy nashville. here's my point.

obviously, i'm a male and i am white and i speak with a southern accent. when i call into programs i think 90% of the people listening assume i'm a racist. and that's the furthest thing from the truth. [inaudible conversations] excuse me? >> guest: i said that's very sad they do that. of say something else about that. i was in the civil rights movement in south carolina in the 60s. i went back to south carolina morere recently covering the political campaigns for pj media was in charleston i was struck by something ratherr amazing. i saw more mixed couples in the bars in charleston that i saw in

la and new york. i think it is interesting. i think the south has made more racial peace than the north. i don't know how that happened but part of it is the people knew each other better. >> host: charles from lexington, virginia. you have 30 seconds to get the last word. >> caller: thank you very much. tmr. simon, quick question. i think it's been true of hollywood since the days of dw griffith that there have been people on all ends of the political spectrum, both left and right, strongly articulating their viewpoints. what has happened in the last three or 30 years that the conservative side of that spectrum has largely disappeared and why do we hear from the conservatives anymore? >> host: in hollywood. thank you, charles. >> guest: my generation we are at fault. i will tell you what i think, though. it's 1968 it was a year and

since 68 hollywood gradually switched over to becoming a left-wing mouthpiece. it was a product of my generation. g i'm a 68 guy who went south on 68 but prolonged time i was a 68 guy and we all came to take over hollywood and that's how it happened. >> host: roger l simon has beenf her guest at his most recent esbook is "i know best". thank you for being on tv. >> guest: great fun. thank you. >> the us north korean summit is set for tuesday and petite will feature authors with books about the region.

watch on c-span's book tv sunday at 5:00 p.m. eastern. >> it's very important to remember which i think is largely misunderstood they do not come to congress for the most part with the intent of reforming congress. as i talked to dozens of these members and asked what motivated you to run for congress in the first place they did not cite the need for reforming the seniority system or redistributing power among the subcommittees or changing motion to recommit. they were not aware of the earlier reform efforts for the most part.

they did not know about that and that was not there motive for running. the motive for running over and over i found talk to them was to end the war in vietnam. that's why they came to washington. within four months they passed a resolution in the caucus offered by bob carr that cut off funding the war in vietnam. for these standards they were quite a successful group. let's remember what that and why they felt so strongly about that. they came to washington at a time when the public criticism and the public attitude toward government was extremely negative. they came in the lake of watergate hearings and the resignation in the investigations and then the surprising party. they came after years almost a decade of horrendous divisive war in vietnam.

they came at a time as congress was just beginning to call back some of the powers it had a bearded to the imperial presidency during most of the mid- 20th century. the past war powers resolution 1973 and the budget and apartment control act in 1974. they had, in fact, try to pass more extensive internal reforms to make the institution more responsive one in the past a legislative reform act in 1946 and 1970 and past subcommittee bill of rights 73 there is still a huge backlog that had not occurred before this group arrived. in fact the major efforts in the early 70s in the select committees committed under julia hansen and under bowling failed. the field in large part because although the democratic caucus with the increasingly illiberal

tinge to it the congress itself was pretty much controlled by the conservative coalition. that was the coalition of southern democrats which is the reason the democratic party was the dominant party and the reason for party controls congress with 58 out of six years between 1934 and 1994 and it was the reason that -- i'm sorry, 32 and 94 the fight not a political scientist. that conservative coalition was able to squelch most of the progressive legislation and the reform of the house rules that would have reform house and democratized the house. that conservative coalition double down in the caucus by the reference to the seniority system which gave itself a reform from it ten which gave chairmanships based purely upon how long you were alive. if you have false you were the chairman and the notion was to award chairmanships of the

dispassionate basis so that you did not just select people who agreed with the speaker or who was able to win support from the committee of ways and means and it was an independent way but as time changed and people lived longer and evolved into a system that rewarded that region of the country where people were most likely to be reelected and that was the one party south. by the time the mid-sixties falls around the chairmanships are disproportionately in the hands of southern conservatives who in some cases are voting 75-80% of the time with the publicans. you have this enormous tension within the democratic caucus between the seniority system which held up legislation as the caucus was increasingly sympathetic towards passing and in addition to this much of what was going on in the congress at the time was very difficult for

the average person to discern. people don't remembert was not television and you cannot go flip on television to see what was being debated of us for but there were not things like written committee reports and subcommittee markups and they were held in secret. they were not even recorded votes in subcommittees for most of the 1960s. congress was a pretty closed process in pretty elitist process dominated by a group that increasingly was out of touch and out of step with the very group that was the majority democratic caucus. >> a chance. >> you can watch this and other programs online at the tv .org.

>> here's a look at the current best-selling nonfiction audiobooks according to audible. topping the list was i will be gone in the dark, the late check crime journalist michelle mcnamara's pursuit account of her search for the golden state killer who has been charged with a dozen murders and 50 sexual assault in california during the 1970s and 80s. after that it's absurd high-speed investigator is look into the rise and fall of biotech startup in the blood.

some of these authors have appeared on the tv. can watch them on the website @booktv .org. >> ladies and gentlemen. please welcome to the stage alyssa muscatine